Fear Isn’t Real

I read a quote from a Malaysian pastor who said, “Fear is not as real as God. When the time comes, we’ll find that it [fear] doesn’t matter anymore.” When we meet Jesus, we will understand how futile our fears have been. In Jesus, there is such love, such joy. There is nothing to fear in the arms of our Savior.

When we see Him face to face we will realize this as never before. But what if we didn’t have to wait? What if we would come to understand right now, in the midst of all we’re going through, the reality of God’s love and the façade of fear?

For those of us who have devoted our lives to Jesus, we don’t have to wait until we die to cast aside the fear so prevalent in our lives and in this world. God’s power is available to us right now, regardless of our circumstance or situation. We have all the love of God at our disposal, and we know perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). In our own strength, we will be afraid. In God’s love, we will be bold and courageous. It all comes down to where we are getting our life. If we are plugged into Jesus, His love will flow through us and flush out all the fear inside us.

Whenever Satan can inflict us with the slightest twinge of fear, he has lessened our effectiveness for the Kingdom of God. We are all but useless to God’s Kingdom when we are succumbing to our fears. Our entire mission can be summed up in the command to love others (Matthew 22:36-40). Love and fear cannot coexist, so if you are living in fear, you cannot be accurately displaying the love of God (1 John 4:18).

I titled this post, “Fear isn’t Real”. On the surface, it sounds ludicrous. Of course, fear is real; we feel it almost every day, don’t we? But what is fear? Fear is a distortion of the truth. It’s not reality. The truth is we have nothing to fear because Jesus has conquered every power that will come against us. Even death bowed down to the power of Christ, so we need no longer fear it. No matter what happens, Jesus wins, and we will be with Him to celebrate His glorious victory.

Fear isn’t real when love abides. We can live in love or we can live in fear, but we can’t live in both. We can serve love, or we can be subservient to fear, but not both. Jesus said plainly no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Which one will you serve? Will you continue to live in fear, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of not being good enough, fear of not being attractive enough, too fat, too skinny, too old, too young, too bold, or too timid? Or will you rejoice with your Creator in the person He created you to be, full of His power and bathed in His love? Fear isn’t real unless you allow it to be. It is our own creation. Love is the true reality. God is in all things and He is love. Fear is not real, but love is. Let go of the fear and live in love today.